Let's Build Bridges

Since the election, (yes, that election), I had debated off and on and off again about writing this post. This post which I am now writing here instead of Facebook.

I grew up in a small, rural town where I would guess that most people were, and still are, Conservatives, although at that time, people did not wear their political views on their sleeve. These are the people that I grew up with. I know them and their hearts and I think they know me. They are part of who I am today and I can say that I love them. Perhaps I do not agree with some of their views, but I see in ways how they were formed.

As a younger adult and small business owner, I identified as a Conservative. Yes, I was a card carrying Republican. I voted for George W not once, but twice. My views were formed due to several factors. One being that as an entrepreneur, I felt that in most cases in the United States, with enough hard work, fortitude and hustling, anyone could make something of themselves. In addition, many labor laws put a squeeze on us, sometimes unfairly.

I also identified as a Conservative because of my beliefs about abortion. I am adopted. For as long as I can remember, I felt this gratefulness that my life had not been extinguished because my birth mother was not prepared to be a mother. I had, and still have, a keen awareness that it would have been much easier for her to have aborted me. I would not be writing this if she had.

Finally, I aligned myself as a Conservative because at the time I was misguided into believing that as a Christian, that was the political party I should align myself with as it was supposedly the "most Christian". Please, don't get me started on that.

Now, before you make your final opinion of me and chalk it up to "so typical". Let me tell the second part of my story. The one that begins as the financial meltdown of 2008 happens.

You see, suddenly I was on the side of the people needing help, needing a handout. I was desperate despite my hard work. I was just trying to keep my house and provide for my children.
This changed me forever. I saw firsthand how quickly a broken down car could lead to disaster. I knew the pain of not being able to buy Christmas gifts for my children.
I will never forget this.
Because of this experience I was given, I saw things through a different lens. And my politics began to change. And I began to understand that for me, a more liberal viewpoint aligned more rightly with who I now was. My heart began breaking for people and their situations. Sometimes things are not all black and white.

But the point of all of this writing is to call for us to build bridges with one another. While I no longer call myself a Conservative, I can understand where the Conservatives are coming from. I may not agree with them in many areas, but calling them names is never going to change anyone's mind.
Likewise, Liberals calling Conservatives names or thinking that they are all brainwashed is not going to create a place where we can talk and discuss and exchange ideas.

It is easy to build a bridge. First, find some common ground. Then build from there. A bridge cannot be built by throwing stones, it is built by lying them down carefully. It is built from both sides until meeting in the middle to cross the chasm. You cannot start the bridge in the middle, as there is no common ground to hold it up. Bridge building is precarious and sometimes dangerous. Sometimes you need to be braver than you want to be and sometimes it is better to lay down a big stone that you just want to hurl. You can work with other bridge builders and not agree with them about every single thing, but the key is to keep looking back at that common ground. You don't have to like your fellow bridge builders, but only accept that they too want this bridge built. Building a bridge is not a matter of being the most right, it is a matter of working together.  And, in my very humble opinion, unless we work hard at building bridges, nothing is going to change and we will be in for years and years of what we all have experienced these last few days.
I don't believe that anyone, Conservatives or Liberals, want that.